17th Istanbul Biennial Releases List of Contributors

The Istanbul Biennial, organized by the nonprofit Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), has revealed a list of 82 contributors, including artists and collectives who will present their works at the festival, as well as contributors to the catalogue and film program over the course of two years. The list will be updated continually.

In an online talk recently released by İKSV, curators David Teh, Amar Kanwar, and Ute Meta Bauer briefly mentioned the “long-term transformative projects” that the team aims to build with local communities. The biennial will feature both exhibitions and events such as talks, screenings, and workshops. As explained by Teh, “we will have these things, but for us [they are] not distinct from the exhibition . . . Most or all of these 50-plus projects are opportunities for meeting, for dialogue, for reading, for exploration and debate. I hope this will be a massively conversational biennial.” The festival is also accompanied by a 25-episode weekly radio program, which was launched in collaboration with Radyo Bienal on May 30, leading up to the official opening of the exhibition.

The 17th edition is guided not by a unified theme but a curatorial statement that metaphorizes the exhibition as a “composting” process where individuals and groups can make sense of “our times—of this planetary dysfunction we created and must face together” in light of ongoing pandemic-related challenges. Projects divided into six categories—Geo-poetics/Elemental Politics, News, Pedagogy, Ancient Solutions, Synaesthesia, and An-archiving—will be shown across ten new and old venues in Istanbul.

The evolving list of artists and collectives is as follows:

Catalogue contributors*
Film program contributors**

1. Lida Abdul
2. Açık Radyo
3. Anne(x)
4. Arahmaiani
5. Arazi Assembly and Topological Atlas
 6. atelier d'architecture autogérée
 7. Pustaka Bergerak
8. Atıf Akın
9. Adlaw Sang Mananagat Fisherfolks’ Day
10. Tarek Atoui
11. John Bell
12. Rustom Bharucha*
13. Bread and Puppet Theater
14. Çiğdem Buğdaycı*
15. Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel**
16. Carlos Casas
17. Cooking Sections
18. Crip Magazine
19. Danarto dkk
20. Devenir Universidad
21. Disobedience Archive [Ders Bitti]
22. Övül Durmuşoğlu*
23. Dumpling Post
24. Greg Dvorak*
25. École du soir in Istanbul: Archives sonores de la litérature noire
26. Marcelo Expósito**
27. Feminist Memory Project
28. Ângela Ferreira
29. Footsteps
30. INLAND
31. Green Papaya
32. Anamika Haksar**
33. Newell Harry
34. David Harvey*
35. Taloi Havini
36. Fang-tze Hsu**
37. INTERPRT
38. In time / On Ground
39. Lamia Joreige
40. Elif Kamışlı*
41. Payal Kapadia**
42. Gülsün Karamustafa
43. Dictionary of Sensitive Sounds
44. KONDA
45. Renato Leotta
46. Charles Lim and Simryn Gill
47. Mariah Lookman
48. Michael Marder*
49. Ruth McDougall*
50. Angela Melitopoulos and Kerstin Schroedinger
51. Alice Miceli
52. Migrant Ecologies Projects**
53. Carl Mika*
54. Nakamura Yuta
55. Mark Nash and Vladimir Seput**
56. Our-history-is-not-found-in-a-book
57. Nguyên Trinh Thi**
58. Marian Pastor Roces*
59. Zozan Pelivhan*
60. Maria Puig de la Bellacasa*
61. Pere Portabella**
62. Pathshala South Asian Media Institute
63. Poetry Channel
64. Pratchaya Phinthong with Chairat Polmuk
65. Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook
66. Ella Raidel**
67. Lisa Rave**
68. Riar Rizaldi**
69. SAHA Studio
70. Tita Salina and Irwan Ahmett
71. Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam**
72. Shapono
73. Lieko Shiga
74. Sim Chi Yin
75. Silent University Orientation Programme
76. Catarina Simão
77. Yehwan Song
78. Sriwhana Spong
79. Orkan Telhan
80. What are the birds thinking?
81. Chikako Yamashiro**
82. Yee I-Lann  

Ella Wong is ArtAsiaPacific’s editorial intern. 

• Istanbul Biennial